Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine has named Mary Truhlar, DDS, as its new dean.
Dr. Truhlar, a Stony Brook dental school graduate and faculty member for the past 25 years, most recently served as the school's interim dean.
Her service to the school includes establishing a clinical practice at Stony Brook; developing educational programs for students and residents, including courses in geriatric dentistry and treating the medically compromised; serving as director of the division of geriatric dentistry, and chair of the department of general dentistry, according to the university.
Dr. Truhlar plans to create Centers of Excellence that will incorporate dental research and clinical care models, including use of the mobile dental clinic to reach underserved communities and school children; and a Regional Imaging Center of Excellence to foster a postdoctoral training program and dental imaging research.
After graduating from Stony Brook's dental school, Dr. Truhlar completed her general practice residency and chief residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, before receiving a Master of Science in Dentistry from Marquette University and a fellowship certificate in geriatric dentistry from the Milwaukee Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She also completed a fellowship in the American Dental Education Association Leadership Institute.
She began her academic career at the Marquette University School of Dentistry, then went to the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, before returning to join the Stony Brook faculty.
Dr. Truhlar was named the 2012 American Dental Educators Association Alpha Omega Foundation /Leonard Abrams Scholar, which recognizes a dental educator who exhibits excellence in teaching and compassion toward others, and she received the 2014 Woman in Dentistry Award of the Nassau and Suffolk county dental societies.
